Do I Need a PREAMP pedal?

[lowrentdiscographer]

21 minutes ago, Cuzzie said:

Also a passive tone knob won’t boost the pass as the treble rolls off, it just doesn’t work that way.

That was/is the one thing that was immediately apparent!

[King Tut]

44 minutes ago, lowrentdiscographer said:

My main problem, and one that I can only blame myself for, is that I've always been a 'coaster' when it comes to playing music. Learn a line, learn a riff, learn a bit of a technique,  threaten to get something going with college mates, get drunk instead... then all of a sudden you're a grown up.

I had a 3 month round of lessons about a 10 years back, not for grades or anything, really just to set a bar as to where I was at and what I could and couldn't do.

Dad-band v1 failed to get any traction a couple of years back. I'm more hopeful this time, although we'll never set anyone's world alight, that we'll be able to perform at some level. The lead guitarist is a firm friend and we've got a sort of parallel history in terms of musical experience. Part of this is absolutely going to be about working out the limits that our lack of experience will let us work to.

I expect in the main our sets will be short - the warm up act to the warm up act to the local working band when they play that community gig that they can't really be desra with because its Saturday day time and they're playing on a trailer in a village square packed with market stalls - would be about the height of our vision. So maybe a setlist that doesn't require different tunings would be the way to go...

Don't really matter mate, so long as you're enjoying yourself and having a laugh - that's all that matters really!

[lowrentdiscographer]

26 minutes ago, Cuzzie said:

Experiment with where you play on the bass - fingers or pick, play nearer the neck - it’s a fatter sound, nearer the bridge - thinner sound - you can get a variety within a song just by this alteration depending on what you want with no EQ changes.

I do try to move my plucking hand about, a bit. On the Ibanez, which has 2 big pickups, I had 2 easy options for this. Obviously on th p going bridge-ward means floating about a bit.

Picks... I'm not anti-pick, it was just a phase in my youth! However it does feel supremely alien and it always sounds extremely overly-bitey, all 'click' and no 'note' when I've tried. Maybe this is down to the extra scoop you've spied in my setup, as much as my technique?

[King Tut]

What @Cuzzie said about the lH500 eq. It's not very intuitive until you understand how it works. Your settings are very mid light and it's the mids that cut through a mix on bass.

[Cuzzie]

Just now, lowrentdiscographer said:

I do try to move my plucking hand about, a bit. On the Ibanez, which has 2 big pickups, I had 2 easy options for this. Obviously on th p going bridge-ward means floating about a bit.

Picks... I'm not anti-pick, it was just a phase in my youth! However it does feel supremely alien and it always sounds extremely overly-bitey, all 'click' and no 'note' when I've tried. Maybe this is down to the extra scoop you've spied in my setup, as much as my technique?

Picks will always click with its attack, but you can soften it with technique, palm muting etc. But it can be your friend when you lock in with your drummer to poke you out the mix - it’s just a different sound you may find that works or does not work for you. Personally I like the click attack

[lowrentdiscographer]

1 minute ago, King Tut said:

What @Cuzzie said about the lH500 eq. It's not very intuitive until you understand how it works. Your settings are very mid light and it's the mids that cut through a mix on bass.

This seems to be the consensus so I'll do some work here. It does mean that I'll have to commit to taking my rig to every practice, and my cab is HEAVY... but as needs must. It is what I'll be playing with.

[Jack]

4 hours ago, lowrentdiscographer said:

Put all your tone back and try again? Ok, I already know that works, in that I can hear myself fine, but I sound like a banjo. Unless we're saying super bright twangy treble-y sound = 'tone' and that's the end of it? I know we aren't playing RnB, but ideally like a little bit of round/fat to then sound. Maybe I'm asking too much. 

Ah, I think this is a big part of your issue. What sounds good solo does not always sound good in a mix, especially a dense rock mix. The opposite is also very much true. 

[Cuzzie]

You only need to take your head and cab once.

borrow an in house cab

set your stuff up to work - make a note of settings

move the head across to an in house cab - see if it’s any different and get it EQ’d for the cab.

Then you only need to take the head.

If you want you can run that side by side with the in house stuff and get that EQ to match - then you need take nothing 

[lowrentdiscographer]

Last night we had a short noticed practice and I put a bit of what we've talked about into practice (apart from using a pick, tried for about 2 bars...) it was better. Got close using the amp eq (essentially left at 2 10 2) and then tried to get a little bit more from the eq. Haven't noticed it before but the eq pedal is very noisy. Remmub, not sure I can live with the amount of his it was giving.

Today I've changed the strings on the p. They were a heavier gauge than what I normally use so I put a roto 45 - 105 set on (will have to get some spares. We're trying out a singer o  Tuesday night so we'll see what difference that makes then...

[lowrentdiscographer]

Hi, just thought I'd round out this thread by confirming what has been said about amp eq/tone stack, and the changing of the bass' strings, has gone a long way to solving the problem I first described, so thanks to ALL who contributed whatever the suggestion.

Sadly the singer I mentioned didn't work out but we do have a "booking" for June (Guitarist Mrs 40th, short set, hour tops, covid permitting)so there will be plenty more questions to come...